Chapter 3

Given the gravity of the accusation, the maid received twenty strokes of the rod and was demoted to cleaning the privies.

I helped Chu Huaizhi back to our courtyard, wanting to explain.

But he released my hand and quietly interrupted me. “You needn’t say anything, Ah Ying.”

As he spoke, he lowered his eyes slightly.

A profound loneliness passed through them.

“I told you before. If you like him, it isn’t out of the question.”

“Don’t misunderstand.” I felt awful.

“I did meet the physician that night, but only because he’d found a new ingredient that might help your condition.”

He looked up and smiled. “Is that so?”

His voice was gentle, but the cold glint in his eyes remained.

I had never seen him like this.

My unease told me there was more to it.

Chu Huaizhi was a man of few desires.

Nothing seemed to interest him.

During our first year of marriage, I had spent a great deal of time investigating, asking the servants about his likes and dislikes.

Without exception, no one could give me an answer.

It seemed this sickly young master barely existed in the eyes of anyone in that tightly guarded household.

No one wanted to serve a master with no future, and he had grown used to it.

Naturally, the responsibility for caring for him fell to me.

I hoped it might bring us closer.

But Chu Huaizhi spoke so little that I had no idea how to ease the awkwardness between us.

Most of the time, we simply looked at one another in silence.

Then came my first New Year in this world.

I bought red lanterns to decorate our perpetually desolate courtyard. Putting my woeful sewing skills to use, I embroidered a little pouch that could just barely pass for a red envelope.

Finally, I tucked a few copper coins inside.

As usual, Chu Huaizhi went to bed at his customary hour.

I closed the windows and lit the candles.

Candlelight filled the room, driving out the cold darkness and warming every corner it reached.

“Why aren’t you asleep?” He couldn’t understand what I was doing.

I carried in a brazier to keep the room warm.

“I’m staying up to see in the New Year.”

Perhaps he couldn’t bear to watch me bustling about any longer. Chu Huaizhi sat up. “I’ll stay with you.”

Only when the New Year arrived did I bring out the embroidered “red envelope” and offer it to him. “Happy New Year.”

He accepted it and asked, “What is this?”

“New Year’s lucky money for you,” I explained with a smile.

“It’s meant to ward off evil and bring you health and peace.”

His bewilderment surprised me.

“Have you… never received any?”

Chu Huaizhi lowered his gaze to my embroidered pouch, gently rubbing a fingertip over the stitched characters.

“Never.”

No one had ever sincerely wished him well.

“Then I’ll give you one every year from now on,” I told him.

“May every year ahead bring you peace and happiness, and may you soon be free of your illness.”

Warmth entered his usually cool eyes.

“All right.

“I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?” I asked, puzzled.

His long fingers tightened around the pouch. Cautiously, he asked, “Could you give them only to me?”

I smiled and nodded. “Of course.”

There was no one else in this world I could give one to anyway.